Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger has revealed that he decided to keep hold of unwanted front man Nicklas Bendtner at the Emirates this season because of the north London club’s “shortage” of strikers, according to reports in the Sunday Express.

Originally, the misfiring Denmark international had been told by Wenger at the end of the previous campaign that he no longer had a future with the Gunners going forward, with Bendtner given the whole of the summer to find himself a new club for this campaign.

As a result, the 25-year-old was not taken on Arsenal’s pre-season tour of the Far East so as to give himself enough time to sort out his future, however, despite plenty of interest in the striker from both clubs in the Premier League and across the Continent, Bendtner was unable to agree a move away from the capital.

Top-flight new boys Crystal Palace and Hull City were both keen on landing the Dane, as were the likes of La Liga’s Malaga and Frankfurt from the Bundesliga, only for Bendtner’s excessive wage demands to prevent any deal from being completed.

And that meant come the closing of the transfer window on Sept 2, Arsenal and Wenger were still left with the gangly attacker, although the Frenchman has now admitted that he actually blocked Bendtner’s exit from the club “because I felt we were short up front.”